What Do I Believe?

I have two guiding philosophies in my life. The first is “persevere no matter what”. Not everybody likes the cards they’re dealt, but you have to play with them. Make sure it’s a good hand. I learned early on in life not to let limitations define my path. Since childhood, I’ve had a stutter. It affects the ease and speed at which I verbally communicate with people to this day. Despite this, I’ve always been a very social person and I love talking to people. I don’t let my stutter get me out of public speaking engagements. In fact, I seek them in spite of my limitation. My words have value, whether they’re easy for you to hear or not. I’ve embodied this mentality throughout my adolescence and my college life. I believe there’s always a way to do something, regardless of if you can see the path or not. That’s why it’s so important to keep persevering.

The second is “gather perspective”. We all have our set of beliefs, but we rarely spend time thinking about why we believe what we believe. I think that in order to be strong in one’s convictions, one needs to challenge their own viewpoints and at least try to understand differing opinions. Gathering perspective also means seeking out diversity of thought in order to broaden your own horizons. This can apply to trivial things like what food you like to eat, or to more important things like what religion you belong to. I am a firm believer in lifelong learning and being open-minded. I see every opportunity as a learning experience and the next opportunity as a chance for redemption. I think we have to keep evolving to stop from devolving.